Microsoft SNA Server 4.0 helps Ohio Savings' Telephone Banking Center staff create more satisfied customers - Product Information

ENT, March 8, 2000

With the help of the Microsoft(R) BackOffice(R) platform, including SNA Server and the Windows DNAfs framework, this rapidly growing and profitable hank is building deeper, more loyal customer relationships with world-class customer service. Ohio Savings is developing a service capability that can outperform competitors large and small through the seamless integration of computer systems and delivery channels.

Situation

Banks today, are being challenged to keep up with the demands of their customers, the commoditization of their products, and intensified competition from an ever-widening range of financial services companies. In this environment, survival and success will go to those banks that can distinguish themselves by servicing their customers through a variety of delivery channels, a wide range of high value products, and a high level of customer attention.

For Ohio Savings Bank, a key way in which these challenges are being met is through investing in technology. This fast growing and highly profitable Cleveland-based bank has reshaped its key information systems architecture around the Microsoft Windows(R) Distributed interNet Applications for Financial Services (Windows DNAfs) architecture.

"This approach will allow the bank to better leverage customer information, incorporate emerging online channels, speed application development, and streamline business processes," according to Peter Goldberg, senior vice president of Ohio Savings.

Collaborative Effort

Prior to implementing this solution, Ohio Savings faced a number of challenges in its systems architecture and functionality. This was particularly apparent in the bank's Telephone Banking Center and operational departments. In this environment, each system and business unit operated almost as distinct silos, each with its own approach and navigation method.

According to Goldberg, "we were operating with outdated legacy systems and our infrastructure would not support an enterprise-wide solution." At the point of sale, these limitations translated into significant gaps in information, slow and ineffective navigation of different systems, and ultimately lost opportunities to better serve and cross-sell customers.

Looking for a solution, Ohio Savings envisioned developing a system around an n-tier client/server architecture. The underlying philosophy was to build an infrastructure of the future, allowing for customer information to be replicated quickly and easily across all delivery channels. The solution was found through the Microsoft BackOffice platform under the Windows DNAfs framework.

Using Microsoft SNA Server 4.0, a BackOffice family product, Ohio Savings' Telephone Banking Center staff has access to multiple host and client/server databases. This means customer service representatives can look up account history and open new accounts from within the same interface while they're online with a customer.

"Microsoft was fascinated by what we were doing," recalls Goldberg. "They were in such synch with our blueprint that they said we had to work together."

The decision to proceed with Microsoft followed extensive research of a variety of middleware vendors. Using DNAfs provided Ohio Savings with a number of important benefits, including the basic n-tier client/server architecture, an object-oriented design with reusable components, and scalability. In addition, the bank took into account the value of a company such as Microsoft backing the design, and the prospect of a speedy development cycle.

Intuitive, Yet Powerful

Work began on the new system in fall 1997. Microsoft worked closely with the Ohio Savings' design group and validated the design and database schema, allowing coding to begin in spring 1998. The actual coding was remarkably quick, and was completed by fall 1998, with the new system going live in November.

"A technologically visionary organization, Ohio Savings Bank has essentially built a digital nervous system that will allow them to be first in their class to combine good old fashioned customer service and streamlined operations with very innovative, cuffing edge technology," says Microsoft worldwide banking manager Mike Dusche.

The solution--an enterprise-wide Total Relationship [System.sup.TM] (TRS)-uses a three-tier client/server architecture that incorporates numerous servers running under Microsoft

Windows NT(R) Server.

[TRS.sup.TM] provides an intuitive, yet powerful, tool to access a wealth of information about customers, in a simple, Windows-based presentation. Information includes the customer's entire relationship, transaction history; contact history, demographics, screen pops on specials or appropriate product suggestions, and "what if" capabilities, as well as product and operational information. Handling more than 10,000 transactions per day through SNA Server, the system provides real-time information on a variety of transactions. A customer who performs a telephone banking transaction can then view the completed transaction right away on the bank's Web site or in any branch.